Scripps gets $2.5 million gift

The widow and family of the late oceanographer Roger Revelle have donated $2.5 million to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD announced yesterday.

The gift, which will be used to recruit a climate scientist to the institution and establish an environmental science chair in Revelle's honor, is the largest single donation ever made for an endowed chair in Scripps' 104-year history.

"This will be enough to recruit an international leader to join the international leaders (in climate-change research) we already have," said Tony Haymet, director of the institution. "We'll be able to ... continue the legacy" of Revelle and other top-flight researchers at Scripps.

Revelle, director of the institution from 1951 to 1964, is often called the "grandfather of the greenhouse effect" because of his work with fellow Scripps researcher Charles David Keeling on rising carbon dioxide levels around the world. Revelle surmised that increased CO 2 in the atmosphere would cause global temperatures to rise.

Former Vice President Al Gore cites Revelle as a personal inspiration in his documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Revelle's wife, Ellen Revelle, said Scripps was dear to her husband, who died in 1991. She said the donation was made with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in mind.

"It's very important that Americans improve and try to do better to mitigate the situation," she said. "We need to do anything we can. The situation is certainly not getting better without doing anything."

Haymet said several candidates for the "Roger Revelle Chair in Environmental Science" have already been interviewed. The combination teaching/research position should be filled within six months.

About 80 percent of the research at Scripps is funded by federal grants. Haymet said private donations, such as the Revelle endowment, allow the kind of innovative research that the federal government often will not fund.

UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said much of the success at the university can be traced to Revelle's early work. Revelle fought for the creation of a University of California campus in San Diego, and the campus's first college is named for him.

"This generous gift from the Revelle family helps ensure that Scripps Institution of Oceanography remains at the forefront of marine science and climate-change research," Fox said.